about

Hi, I'm Folke; the face and muddy hands behind Dreizehn Einhalb Gramm.

It started with a La Pavoni hand-lever espresso machine, a Christmas gift from my parents. I spent weeks on the grind, the water temperature, the pressure in search of the perfect shot. The number that came out the other end was 13.5 grammes of coffee for a single espresso.

That precision felt like everything I believed in: detail, optimisation, the idea that the right answer could be engineered. Dreizehn Einhalb Gramm started as a symbol of that pursuit. And once the espresso was right, the next question was already on the table: what would I drink it from.That precision felt like everything I believed in: detail, optimisation, the idea that the right answer could be engineered. Dreizehn Einhalb Gramm started as a symbol of that pursuit. And once the espresso was right, the next question was already on the table: what would I drink it from.

from coffee to cup.

In early 2022 I bought a potter’s wheel. With an architecture background and some prior experience with clay, I thought I could simply design the right cup for the espresso.

Clay is not as obedient as numbers. Unlike espresso, there is no fixed formula for shaping it. Small variations change everything, and imperfections appear whether you invite them or not. The details you can’t fully control are the ones that give a piece its character. Slowly, that became the more interesting question.

the illusion of perfection.

I came to coffee for precision. Clay taught me to let go. The material asks for a slower rhythm; small differences appear in every piece. Perfection becomes momentary, deviation becomes part of the work.
Today, Dreizehn Einhalb Gramm no longer stands for narrow exactness. It has grown into a balance between attention to detail and acceptance of imperfection; in the ceramics, and in the way I work. The shift wasn’t only mine. The way people think about handmade things had started to change too.I came to coffee for precision. Clay taught me to let go. The material asks for a slower rhythm; small differences appear in every piece. Perfection becomes momentary, deviation becomes part of the work.

Today, Dreizehn Einhalb Gramm no longer stands for narrow exactness. It has grown into a balance between attention to detail and acceptance of imperfection; in the ceramics, and in the way I work. The shift wasn’t only mine. The way people think about handmade things had started to change too.

a counterweight.

Handmade objects work as a counterweight to mass production. A few years ago, ceramics started finding a much wider audience. People are looking for more meaning in the things they touch every day.

Craftsmanship has become a loaded word, and how well something is made depends on who you ask. What matters more is how much of the person ended up in the thing. That’s the part I keep coming back to.

dreizehn einhalb gramm.

Each piece is wheel-thrown in the studio in Frankfurt am Main. From soft clay to fired stoneware, the focus stays on clean forms, quiet details, and a careful process. Every object carries the traces of its making; small irregularities that come with the work.

I started Dreizehn Einhalb Gramm to make pieces that become part of daily life; cups, bowls, plates that end up in a kitchen, washed, chipped, kept. When a person sits behind the object, the object behaves differently in the hand.